Biorthogonal and nonuniform lapped transforms for transform coding with reduced blocking and ringing artifacts

Abstract

New lapped transforms are introduced. The lapped biorthononal transform (LBT) and hierarchical lapped biorthogonal transform (HLBT) are appropriate for image coding, and the modulated HLBT biorthogonal transform (MMLBT) and nonuniform modulated lapped biorthogonal transform (NMLBT) are appropriate for audio coding. The HLBT has a significantly lower computational complexity than the lapped orthogonal transform (LOT), essentially no blocking artifacts, and fewer ringing artifacts than the commonly used discrete cosine transform (DCT). The LBT and HLBT have transform coding gains that are typically between 0.5 and 1.2 dB higher than that of the DCT. Image coding examples using JPEG and embedded zerotree coders demonstrate the better performance of the LET and HLBT. The NMLBT has fewer ringing artifacts and better reproduction of transient sounds than the MLT, as shown in audio coding examples. Fast algorithms for both the HLBT and the NMLBT are presented.